Cyclades
Physical Description
The Cycladic Islands, Crete, and the Dodekanese are the result of the collision of the African continental plate with Europe. The African plate is sliding beneath Europe, being melted, and molten volcanic rock has pushed to the surface to form the islands we see today. The Cyclades is a cluster of islands in the center of the Aegean, so named in antiquity because they lay in a circle (kuklos) around the small island of Delos, sacred as the birthplace of Apollo. Two chains of islands can be distinguished: to the west are Keos, Kythnos, Seriphos, Siphnos, Kimolos, Melos and Pholegandros, and to the east are Tenos, Mykonos, Delos, Syros, Paros, Naxos, Ios, Amorgos, Santorini (Thera), and Anaphe. Of these many islands, some are of volcanic origin, such as Melos and Santorini, and others are formed of crystalline schists, limestones, and marbles, thrust up from the ocean floor. In antiquity gold and silver were mined at Siphnos.
All of the Cyclades are mountainous and extremely arid. As a consequence, there is little good farming and Naxos and Melos alone have sufficient pasture to produce and export cheese.
The Cycladic economy has relied on seafaring since the beginning of the Bronze Age. Because of their location and good harbors, the Cyclades have always provided ports of call on the short route from Greece to Samos and Asia Minor. Delos and Syros, situated in the center of the island cluster, have provided markets of exchange at different periods of history.
History
In the Bronze Age, the Cyclades enjoyed a flourishing culture, much influenced in the second millennium by the Mycenaean and Minoan cultures. Ionic-speaking settlers from continental Greece occupied these islands after 1000 B.C. In the eighth century B.C., Eretria, the Athenian tyrant Pisistratos, and Polycrates of Samos divided control of the islands. In the sixth century Lygdamis of Naxos controlled some of them as well. None of these powers, however, could protect the Cyclades or their inhabitants from the Persian invasion of 490 B.C. After the Persian Wars, c. 478/7, the Cyclades entered the Athenian League at Delos, and soon Athens became the administrative power of the islands.
Sites
Although Delos is one of the smallest of the Aegean islands, with an area of 3.6 sq. km, it was one of the most important in antiquity both as a political and religious center. As the birthplace of both Apollo and Artemis, Delos was sacred. The island boasted an oracle second only to the Oracle of Delphi, and a temple to Apollo raised by a common contribution of the Greek states.
Andros is the most northerly of the Cyclades, lying 11 km east of Euboea. Although Andros has an area of only 380 sq. km, it possesses two harbors, one at Batsi and the other at Gavrion. A characteristic feature of the landscape of Andros, and of many other islands in the Classical period are the great stone towers that marked farmsteads and lookout points near the coast.
Southwest of Andros is Naxos. Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades islands (428 sq. km), and it houses the largest mountains. Zia rises to a height of 1003 m in the interior of the island, with a gradual slope to the foot of the mountain. The west coast is well watered and fertile. Naxos is famous from mythology as the place where Theseus abandoned the princess Ariadne on his return voyage from Crete. There, Dionysos found her and made her his wife. Historically, Naxos developed a prosperous maritime trade in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. It produced an important school of sculptors. At Melones, a city located in southeastern Naxos, at the quarries of Flerio, there still lie two unfinished and abandoned seventh century kouroi, and near the emery quarries of Appollona there lies another unfinished colossal kouros.
Just to the west of Naxos is the island of Paros ( 194 sq km), famed in antiquity for its beautiful marble. From the central height of Profitis Illias (750 m), the fertile hilly landscape of Paros slopes down to the coast on all sides.
Thera is the most southerly of the Cyclades, lying only 140 km north of Crete. Since 1626 B.C., when a violent volcanic eruption destroyed the island, Thera has taken the shape of a semicircle opening to the west. Across from the main island there are two smaller uninhabited islands: Therasia, with an area of 9 sq. km, and Aspronisi with an area of 2 sq. km. Excavations on these islands and at the site of Akrotiri have shown that Thera was flourishing and prosperous in the second millennium B.C., and while the inhabitants of the island were in contact with the Minoan civilization of Crete, they developed an individual and unique culture. Thera was not re-inhabited until many years after the huge eruption, when Dorian settlers established themselves on the island. On a southeastern section of the island, above the coastal village of Kamari, lies the rocky site of the ancient village of Thera. The site includes a temenos, a temple to Apollo Pythios and to Apollo Karneios, an agora, and a gymnasium with many inscriptions. There is an archaeological museum on the island which houses material from the Cycladic and Minoan periods.
Melos, famous because of the statue of Aphrodite in the Louvre (Venus de Milo), is the most southwesterly of the Cyclades. To the northwest the island is almost completely divided by a deep gulf. Port Adamas provides a safe harbor within the gulf. The uninhabited southern portion of the island rises to 773 m on the hill of Profitis Illias. Like Thera, Melos is of volcanic origin, and produced obsidian, a black volcanic glass used for cutting tools, and other useful minerals throughout antiquity. The Classical city of Melos, which was destroyed by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War, has well-preserved walls and. from a later period, early Christian catacombs.
Curtis Runnels
